


Ghost of the Past

by Trickstress



Series: We Built This City [6]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AKA Jeremy Dooley is a great guy, Achievement Hunters fuck up once again, Character death ahoy, Fake AH Crew, Gen, Halloween doesn't go exactly well for the crew, Immortal FAHC, In which Michael technically gets kidnapped and faces up to his past, Respawn Mechanics, fake achievement hunter crew - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 16:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13322283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trickstress/pseuds/Trickstress
Summary: It was the crew's first Halloween together. Well, it almost was. After a spontaneous mission goes wrong, the rest of the crew race to get Michael back, and learn some unexpected things in the process.A gift for Gillevo because I have apparently haunted Gil for a decade without realizing it.





	Ghost of the Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gillevo](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=gillevo).



> So, this was originally gonna be done in October for Halloween but then things happened and I switched jobs and more things happened, so here. Take this angst.

It was the crew’s first Halloween together.

Well, it almost was.

There had been a newer crew in town causing some trouble and they had to postpone their Halloween costume party and go out to deal with them.Considering that the costumes were supposed to represent them in their first life, there was some interesting moments happening. Such as a pirate wielding a machine gun and a man in a toga with a rocket launcher and so on and so forth.

Well, Michael was already a bit uneasy just because of what he was wearing. It brought back a lot of memories that he just wasn’t prepared to deal with. So, he was already a bit off his game and wouldn’t admit it to the rest of the crew because then Geoff and Ryan would want to talk about it, Jeremy wouldn’t push but would look at him with sad eyes because he obviously knew something was up with him but didn’t know the extent of it, Gavin and Jack would hover and generally try and pester him for the information.

Either way he was boned.

The Italian was already pretty quiet on the comms as they split up to head towards the side of town where they suspected The Vagos to be holing up. Not the best plan, but a few of them were already a few drinks in and the rest of them weren’t too worried about anything so they went along with it.

“Find any strange occurrences yet?” Geoff asked loudly in his ear and he grumbled while other signs of annoyance came through the line.

“That is the fifth time you’ve asked in eight minutes Geoffrey.” Jack said, looking down a sniper scope from her parked helicopter.

“Well, I just want to know! And as your fearless leader-”

“You should know that we’ll tell you if we see anything.” Ryan cut in and the group heard Geoff pout into the mic. There was a blissful minute of silence until-

“Any sign of them yet?”

“COME ON GEOFF!”

“fUCKING REALLY?!”

“COME OFF IT GEOFFREY!”

Michael sighed and turned around from his perch up on a roof to find a group of men all pointing guns at him angrily.

“Well shit.” He said and suddenly all the rest of the crew heard was gunfire and then the tell tale crackle of the comm going dead.

There was a pause and then things kicked off.

“Shit! Gavin, please tell me you can figure out where Michael was before he…..before that happened!”

There was furious keyboard typing and then another pause.

“My eyes on the group last saw him on the corner of Innocence Boulevard and Strawberry Ave. He entered a building on that block and wasn’t seen but a large group did go in and….wait….they just came out carrying a large bag.”

There was silence.

“Fuck.”

“Alright guys, we know he’s coming back eventually. It’s not like we lost him forever! Just a few decades! And what’s that to us?” Jack hesitantly chuckled, seeming like she was trying to convince herself more than the rest of the group.

It went silent again as the group began to leave to meet up to take down the Vagos who they had clearly underestimated.

“Actually…” Jeremy started and then paused. “Well, I don’t think Michael is going to be gone for that long.”

“What are you on about Lil’ J?” Gavin asked, actually sounding a bit annoyed as he worked at his laptop in the van they had originally rolled up in.

“I never told you guys how I met Michael, did I? Well, I met him because I saw him die right in front of me.”

“But wait,” Ryan interjected, “You said that you lived with Michael and then Jack in the 80’s and he was clearly alive again by time Jack came around.”

“I know. He popped back up less than a day than when he went down.”

The only sound were the various vehicles and wind in their comms.

“How- how even is that possible? I’ve never gone through a respawn without it being decades at least!” Geoff asked quietly.

There was no answer.

The crew was still quiet as they met up at the van with Gavin and started driving. The only speaking was when Gavin gave directions to the Vago’s hideout.

They didn’t speak as they wiped The Vagos off the face of the earth.

They didn’t speak when they searched for a body bag containing their friend throughout the entire warehouse and lighting the place on fire when they didn’t find anything.

It was 8 hours by time all of this was done and they had checked everywhere.

Until Ryan walked around the back of the structure and saw freshly dug dirt that was moving on it’s own slightly.

With a shout of alarm, he quickly dropped his weapons and started digging with his bare hands. At the shout, the others came running and quickly jumped in to help. What they found was a zipped body bag jerking violently amongst the earth. Ryan zipped opened the bag to hear a desperate gasp and found Michael with glassy eyes, still hyperventilating.

“Michael, we’re here, it’s okay. We’ve got you!” He spoke quietly but Michael didn’t respond. He went to touch his shoulder when Jeremy jumped down into the large hole and pulled Ryan’s hand away to the older man’s shock.

“Don’t touch him, it’ll only make him worse.”

The bald man then turned to Michael and sat down next to him.

“Michael, I know you’re there. You just gotta breathe with me buddy, okay?”

He sat there and talked to Michael, despite his friend’s unresponsive state, smiling slightly when the other man’s breathing started to slow down and match his own. The others just watched silently, stunned at what was going on. They had never respawned like this. It just felt like waking up again. Granted, they didn’t wake up in a body bag but as soon as the air was gone from a few attempts, he’d appear above ground again like nothing happened.  
It was a good ten minutes before Michael had drifted off to sleep and Jeremy felt comfortable to move him, having Ryan and himself pick up the unconscious man and lift him up to Geoff, Jack, and Gavin. After climbing out themselves, they all headed back to the van and headed home.

There was a different kind of silence on the ride home.

They changed into their pajamas before heading back to the living room where Michael was laid on the couch. Everyone was entrenched in their own thoughts when Michael finally began to come to silently.  
Michael had no idea where he was as he woke up. He laid absolutely still as he tried to take in his surroundings as he didn’t dare open his eyes or move a muscle until he knew what was going on. It seemed that he was left on something soft and the place smelled familiar...almost like...something familiar.

It was Jeremy who noticed the change in breathing to something that hitched then went quickly back to steady. He smiled a sad smile before glancing over had his longest friend in the crew.

“Hey Sleeping Beauty, some of us here want to use the couch instead of laying on the hardwood like animals.”

“Jeremy-” Jack exclaimed angrily but froze when she heard a chuckle come from the couch. Michael had slowly sat up with a smile, looking around at all of the shocked faces and Jeremy’s now shit eating grin.

“Well, you guys are all animals so I don’t see the problem here.”

The crew hesitantly scooted closer towards him, seeing how close they could get without being shooed away but Michael lifted his hands and shrugged, opening up his arms wide letting the group dog pile on him.

It was the first death in the group and while they couldn’t die, it was still terrifying that their family could be broken up so easily. Hell, if something did happen, Geoff was considering getting one of those glass caskets like in Snow White to put the unlucky sod in while they waited for them to get back...and draw dicks on of course.

The worry was not forgotten though, because even if they were teasing each other once again and giving each other shit, Jeremy looked sadly at Michael and caught Geoff’s eyes.

A silent nod was all it took for Jeremy to ask Michael about what happened and Michael knew he didn’t mean tonight.

So he told them.

Michael told them everything. How he had been raised on a vineyard with his parents and how they had been brutally murdered. How he was a homeless orphan until a man with kindness took him in and taught him the beauty in life. How he died in a plane crash before there was even planes and the time he spent traveling.

Michael told them about how a town he had grown to love turned on him and made it their mission to punish him for their fears and insecurities and why he was so old but still knew so little. How he made it over to America and let his despair, hate, and pain cause pain on others and how he found another family. How he woke up to Jeremy one day after he had been shot smiling at him sadly, like he had today saying that he had waited a long time to find someone else.

 

Gavin morosely pensive that his boi had dealt with this when Gavin thought he had his own problems that could be world ending to him.

Ryan was horrified that such a bright and hopefully kid he had met had been through so much and that he wasn’t able to do anything.

Geoff distressed that Michael had been holding this in for so long.

Jack startled at the realization that despite being immortal, there was a whole lot of horrible things than death.

Jeremy smiling softly that Michael had found the courage and trust to tell them.

And so, the Fake AH Crew grew infinitely closer that day. If someone found Michael curled up in their bed for some reason in the middle of the night, they’d just scoot a little closer and throw a blanket over him so he wouldn’t be reminded of stone walls and metal chains.

Gavin wouldn’t tease him as much when teaching him about technology and patiently sat through tantrums about not understanding certain things.

Ryan caught him up on things he missed out on, particularly the art movements and promised to take him to the Louvre in the near future.

Jack stopped pestering people about their past in general. She had always been the most enthusiastic about asking the others about their pasts, and that was just due to how young she was and that she had only gone through her first death. Of course, the others didn’t mind when she did ask, but she knew not to push certain subjects.

Geoff would look pensively over at the Italian man every so often, sometimes smiling or chuckling to himself about some joke he kept hidden to himself and disappearing every once in a while.  
And Jeremy? Well he just carried on doing what he normally did. Making stupid website jokes that Michael was getting more and more context for, dressing in outlandish orange and purple suits that made eyes bleed, and generally being a great guy who had been there for Michael in the beginning and had silently kept doing so over the decades.

And if Michael finally took him up on some of those silent offers as they sat on the couch in an empty apartment and a black undershirt happened to be a bit tear stained every so often?

Well, he wasn’t gonna say anything.


End file.
